The Week.

he told them , declined " to go on board the ship which was waiting to convey them across the Atlantic . A number of them , however , made up their minds to go out ; but their voyage has for the present been stopped—the Great Western , in which passages had been secured for them , being detained by the authorities at Liverpool . The batch of supposed recruits from

Ashton-uncler-Lyne was joined by contingents from London and other places , and on AA ' ednesday the Great Western hacl from 400 to 500 men on board , some of whom , however , managed to escape before the authorities had taken any steps for the detention of the vessel . It deserves to be mentioned that of all these men , engaged ostensibly for glassmaking , not

one has been hitherto employed in that manufacture . A remarkable case—heard before a jury—has occupied the Eolls Court for three days . Stripped of technicalities , the question was whether a young lady was or was not the child of a Mr . and Mrs . Gedney . If she was , then she became entitled to a sum of £ 2 . 000 on coining of age . Mrs . Gedney is dead , and

some of her relations put iii a plea , which , if sustained , would disinherit the young lady , who was plaintiff in the suit . It was urged , on their part , that the plaintiff was not a Gedney at all , but a supposititious child who , when a day or two olcl , hacl been obtained for Mrs . Gedney from a lying-in hospital in London . The jury found that she was not the child of Mr . and Mrs .

Gedney , but recommended her to the sympathy of the family . In the Court of Common Pleas on AVedtiesday au important case , involving the question of the liability of tlie underwriters for the value of goods seized on board the Pelerhoff , was submitted to the judges . The Peterhoff , it will be remembered , was captured by Federal cruisers and confiscated by the American authorities . After bearing all the arguments , tlie judges reserved their decision . The chief clerk of

Vice-Chancellor Kindersley sat on Tuesday last to settle the list of contributories in the winding- up of the Leeds Bank . The proceedings had a good deal of interest for those concerned . It was stated that tlie call upon those who were placed on the list would be at least £ 50 per share . The Chief Clerk saicl that he should propose to fix the 1 st of December as the day on which the amount of the call should

be determined . An important decision in respect to churchrates has been given in the Court of Queen ' s Bench . A Mr . Pedlar and others wore summoned before the justices at Wellington , Somersetshire , for non-payment of church-rates . Mr . Bennett , of Sorjeant ' s-inn , appeared for them , and took objections to the validity of the rate . The justices , after consulting

with their clerk , decided that the objections were bona fide , and dismissed the summons , thus leaving the churchwardens to look to the Ecclesiastical Courts for a remedy . Later another summons was issued , and again tho same objections ' were raised . The justices this time carried matters with a high hand . Declining to consult with their clerk , they

overruled the objections , and made an order for the payment of the rate . Application was then made to the Court of Queen ' s Bench for a rule to quash the order , ancl this came on for argument . AA'ithoufc calling upon the opponents of the rate to reply to the arguments which hacl been raised in its support , the Court hold that the magistrates' order must bo quashed .

The affairs of the London ancl Northern Bank were under discussion in an unusual manner at the Mansion House on AVednesday . The directors of the bank hacl obtained a summons against Mr . Frederick Symons for having endeavoured to extort money from them by threatening them with tho publication of certain statements . The bank had recently made considerable losses , and its shares have fallen to a discount in the market . It is alleged that the defendant , who is a shareholder in the bank ,

went to the directors ancl told them that if they did not take his shares from him at par he would publish statements which would be unpleasant to them . They refused , and he had since taken proceedings in Chancery against tbem . The threat was the offence now charged . After a good deal of evidence had been taken , ancl the affairs of the bank looked into pretty closely ,

the summons was dismissed . A sad story reaches us from Greenock . The brig Ayrshire Lass , while on her voyage from Miramichi to Ardrossan with a cargo of wood , was caught in a storm , and was thrown on her beam-ends . The captain and two of the crew were asleep at the time , and were drowned . Some time afterwards the vessel righted , but the

survivors , three in number , found that tho beef and water had been washed away , and their sole means of subsistence consisted of a small bag of thoroughly soaked biscuits . For about a week they lived upon this slender store , and then , finding that it was nearly exhausted , they killed the dog , which , with a very small allowance of biscuit , formed their only food for the

next ton days . The dog was "finished" on the 9 th inst ., but relief then came ; they were picked up by the Caledonia steamer , and conveyed to the Clyde . The carriage-shed connected with the Great AA'estern Railway Company's works at AA ' orcester , was destroyed by fire on Friday night . The shed contained a great deal of valuable property , including eighteen

new carriages , which were entirely consumed . Tho total loss is estimated afc from 25 , 000 * . to 30 , 000 * . On the same night , a similar disaster befel a large block of buildings in Benn ' s Gardens , Liverpool , occupied by Messrs . Flett , preserve manufacturers , and Messrs . M'Corquodale ancl Co ., printers . A fire broke out on Friday morning on board the steam vessel Perth , which was moored afc the time in the Eoyal Dockyard afc Deptford . Among the improvements in the yard , thafc of a steam

fire-engine is not included ; and from the scarcity of hands , only one of the engines connected with the floating engine could play . A steam fire float arrived from London more than an hour after the fire was discovered , but after it got into play it did efficient service . The injury sustained by the steamer was so great that it has been condemned to be broken up . Kohl , the Dutchman , who is accused of the murder in the

Plaistow Marshes , underwent another examination before the magistrates at Stratford on Saturday . The evidence adduced on that occasion tended to draw the suspicion against him closer than it was before . Some lodgers in Kohl ' s house state that they saw him come home about half-past one o ' clock—about the hour Kohl says he was with the deceased in the neighbourhood

of the docks—that his clothes were then covered with mud , and that in the course of the evening he broke open the boxes of the missing man , ancl saicl they were empty . The prisoner was remanded . The inquest on the body of the murdered man was commenced on Monday . The only new point was the surgical examination of tho head , which was stated to bear

marks of great violence inflicted before death took place , or more than sufficient to have caused death . It appears that the handle of a hatchet and a spade have also been found near tlie spot . Tlie police are still diligently employed in the endeavour to discover the missing clothes of the murdered German . Hitherto , we believe , their efforts have failed of

success . The inquest on the Erith explosion has come to an end at last . Tho jury returned a verdict that they hud no evidence to show how tlie explosion occurred on board tho barges , but tbey call the attention of the Government to the defects of the law relating to the storing of gunpowder on various points which they proceed to point out . An inqnesfc was held at Guy's Hospital on Saturday last on the body of a man who was felled with a blow from a poker by a man